Bucks rally with a strong fourth quarter to take Game 1 against Raptors

Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo tries to stop Raptors’ forward Kawhi Leonard as he looks for the shot during Game 1 of their Eastern Conference final on Wednesday night in Milwaukee. (FRANK GUNN/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

MILWAUKEE – For the better part of three and a half quarters it appeared an extended break for the Milwaukee Bucks would be their undoing in the first game of this Eastern Conference Finals.

Whether the lack of rest finally caught up to Toronto or it was a case of the Bucks finally getting their sea legs back, the tide turned pretty dramatically in the final quarter.

Kyle Lowry did his individual damnedest to make sure it didn’t with a tour-de-force 14-point fourth, but it wasn’t enough to offset the Bucks, who were spurred on by a loud and animated sell-out crowd at their new home, the Fiserv Forum.

“Obviously it was a missed opportunity,” Raps’ guard Fred VanVleet said. “We’re not running from that. Just flush it. You can sulk on it. You can’t sit on it. We’ll think about it tonight and look at the film, practice tomorrow and move on. It felt like we had a chance to win. We didn’t execute enough to get it done.”

Whether it was Brook Lopez or Nikola Mirotic, the Bucks seemed to find their collective shooting strokes in that final frame, outscoring Toronto 32-17 to get a 108-100 win in Game 1 of the series.

Lopez wound up with a Bucks-best 29 points in the game after some serious struggles in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Coming into the series, Lopez was shooting from distance an-uncharacteristic-for-him 28%. He spent a lot of extra time in the gym following shootaround Wednesday morning. With each and every miss he could be heard from the other side of the gym, cursing each unsuccessful three.

By game time there were still issues with the shot but, not to be denied, Lopez reverted to the inside force he has been in years past and finished with 24 points to give Milwaukee a huge boost.

Lopez was just 4-for-11 from distance but 8-for-10 inside the arc to lead the Bucks to the victory.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put up some pretty solid numbers across the board with 24 points, 14 rebounds and six assists but was not the dominant force he has been for the Bucks throughout these playoffs.

Bottom line, the Bucks did not play their best game and they still won. That has to be troubling for the Raptors.

Lowry came into this game knowing the Bucks represented the opponent he struggled most against this past season.

He shot just 23% against the Bucks this year, averaging a personal-opponent-worst 6.3 points in the three games he faced them.

The Raptors point guard put any injury concerns to rest early attacking with his Lowry-like ferocity and punishing the Bucks from behind the three-point line.

He would finish with 30 points, eight rebounds and two assists shooting 10-for-15 from the field and a stellar 7-for-9 from distance.

Clearly, that oven mitt, or whatever it was Lowry was wearing on his left hand purportedly to protect a sore left thumb, was all a ruse.

Either that or the healing powers of that glove are so impressive that professional teams the world over are going to be putting them on order immediately.

Lowry showed absolutely no effects of a thumb issue in this one. It was his first 30-plus game since March 3 in Detroit when the Raptors lost an overtime game in Detroit to Dwane Casey’s Pistons.

And just like that effort, this one was essentially wasted.

“It’s been a while since he’s had one of those nights where every time he pulled up you thought he was going to make it,” Raps’ head coach Nick Nurse said afterwards. “Every time he let it go tonight, you were like, ‘that’s going in.’ And that was good to see because we’ve seen those a lot in the regular season.

“But he was great,” Nurse said. “He was fighting like heck out there. I thought he threw his body in front of people on a few things, didn’t get the whistle on a few. He always draws charges and there were tons of charges going on out there, but he still was taking them. That’s his thing. And he was good. He was awesome.”

Kawhi Leonard, meanwhile, had one of the quietest 31-point games you are ever going to see. He was good on 10-of-26 shots and had a solid third quarter with 14 points but had just two in the fourth when his team needed him most.

The Bucks got some nice production off their bench from The President Malcolm Brogdon, who came back from a two month layoff in the final game in the Boston series.

Normally a starter, and potentially one before this series is over, Brogdon had a bench-high for the game 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer would not commit to a minutes restriction on the returning Brodgon for Game 1 but all indications are if he’s not already at full strength, he’s nearing it.

The game began like the Bucks were in a heap of trouble fighting off the rust that had accumulated over the week-long reprieve from the playoffs.

The hard road to the Eastern Conference final for the Raptors, on the other hand, seemed to be paying off nicely.

Rest is great and all and the Bucks got plenty of it, finishing a full four days before the Raptors’ series ended. But the rust that accumulated over that break, while the Raptors were keeping their own edge battling a Philadelphia 76ers squad that had far more fight than the Boston Celtics, showed in Milwaukee early.

The Bucks did not hit a three until their seventh attempt. Conversely, every Raptors’ starter had a three in the time it took Milwaukee to hit one.

The Bucks weren’t just missing shots. They were missing by wide margins.

Toronto’s defence, meanwhile, which tightened up significantly over the final couple of games in the Philadelphia series, came into this one still locked in. Of those errant attempts from three by the Bucks, a number of them were no-alternative shots as the Raptors defence forced Milwaukee to turn down one shot after another looking for an opening only to have to take a forced last-second heave.

The Bucks eventually righted things but left it until rather late, making for an exciting finish if nothing else.

By game’s end, the Raptors still had a 15-11 edge in three pointers made but the Bucks 40% shooting trumped Toronto’s 37%.

The two teams will do battle again in the same venue Friday with an 8:30 p.m. tip.